Training yearlings and conditioning older dogs takes time and kilometres. By now the sun was gone and most of the time we trained in total darkness sometimes compounded by fog. So how do I know where we are? Perfect vision, navigation tools and a head torch.

I wear CIBA DAILIES AquaComfort Plus contact lenses. For the extreme environment I live in, I can’t deal with anything other than perfection for my eyes. These lenses are unbelievable and I never know they’re in. Compass? Recta compasses are the only ones I trust. My favourite is the DS 50G Global System. For light I favour Petzl’s Myo 3 and Tikka head torches. And to back it all up I use the lightweight and compact Garmin Vista Cx or a GPSMAP 60CSx with its fast satellite reception even in mountainous regions. Both are waterproof so I don’t worry about bringing them into my tent where condensation normally renders electronic kit useless. I only ever use Energizer lithium batteries. Alkaline batteries are full of water and freeze.

Soon the dog fighting slackened and the desire to run intensified, the emphasis was on slow endurance runs throughout December. Before the end of the month I was running ten dogs. We’d power out and power home. My sled was empty and I lay on my stomach with my head bipod fashion resting on my hands. I felt like a little boy looking over the edge of his bed at all his best toys. I looked at my dogs' legs hammering away thinking they were those of charging soldiers.

I was to get a lot of dog injuries before Christmas, not strains but fighting injuries. Seeing my dogs inflict grotesque gaping wounds upon each other followed by the days I watch them healing is always hard for me to bear.

Each year Ittoqqortoormiit’s Christmas tree comes with one of the summer re-supply ships and is kept in storage. Barely a week before the big event the tree is shoved outside.

Close to Christmas I was running past the tree. I know it was dark because all our Decembers are black. Five little girls were holding hands and dancing to the Christmas carols they were singing. They were doing this from the lights on the tree. It was possible to look at the tree without seeing the huge steel strands of wire coming off it anchoring it to rocks so the wind didn’t take it out to sea.

I’d encouraged a few hunters to collect dog fur last summer. The money came through and I paid those who contributed to the first shipment. They were very pleased. Life here is so difficult to earn a crust. Less than a week before Christmas musk-ox hunters returned late from being out in two weeks of storms. The meat would have seen a good Christmas. They returned with nothing except frostbitten faces and fingers.

Did you know Greenlanders, as do Danes, celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve?